Bahá'í
Academics Resource Library
HRP: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
IRF: Annual Reports to Congress on International Religious Freedom
FREEDOM OF RELIGION
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion and for the principle
of separation of church and state; however, in practice the Government
only partially respects these rights. The Government perceives unofficial
Islamic groups or mosques as extremist security threats and outlaws them.
The Government permits persons affiliated with mainstream religions, including
approved Muslim groups, Jewish groups, the Russian Orthodox Church, and
various other denominations, such as Catholics and Lutherans, to worship
freely and generally registers more recently arrived religions. However,
the religion law forbids or severely restricts activities such as proselytizing
and importing and disseminating religious literature....
The law also requires that all religious groups and congregations register
and provides strict and burdensome criteria for their registration. In
particular it stipulates that each group present a list of at least 100
Uzbek citizen members (compared with the previous minimum of 10) to the
local branches of the Ministry of Justice. This provision enables the Government
to ban any group simply by denying its registration petition.
A number of minority religious groups, including a variety of Christian
confessions, Baha'i, and Hare Krishna, had difficulty satisfying the strict
registration requirements set out by the law.
The 178 registered minority religious groups include.... 7 Baha'i....
The 174 registered minority religious groups include.... 7 Baha'i
The Committee on Religious Affairs has approved the registration of 170
minority religious groups including.... 5 Baha'i.....
As of March 1, 1999, the Government had received 1,700 applications for
registration from Muslim congregations. As of mid-year, 1999, it had approved
registration for 1,510 Muslim, 119 Christian (out of 132 applications),
and 11 other (Jewish and Baha'i) congregations or groups....
On the other hand, the Committee on Religious Affairs has approved the
registration of at least six Baptist congregations, as well as Jewish,
Russian Orthodox, Seventh-Day Adventist, Baha'i, Presbyterian, Pentecostal
("Full Gospel"), and other Christian churches. Several of these congregations
had fewer than the required 100 members but received exemptions from the
requirement.